Animal Sacrifice
Comments by Bob Hope - 14 Jul 2012

Hi Frank,

I try to point out to Christians that according to Jeremiah 7:21-27 God
NEVER wanted animal or human sacrifices. Most go ballistic, for they believe
that "without the shedding of blood there is no forgiveness of sins"!

Have you any article I could give them?

Bob

:1 The word that came to Jeremiah from the LORD, saying,
2 Stand in the gate of the LORD's house, and proclaim there this word, and
say, Hear the word of the LORD, all ye of Judah, that enter in at these
gates to worship the LORD.
3 Thus saith the LORD of hosts, the God of Israel, Amend your ways and your
doings, and I will cause you to dwell in this place.
4 Trust ye not in lying words, saying, The temple of the LORD, The temple of
the LORD, The temple of the LORD, are these.
5 For if ye throughly amend your ways and your doings; if ye throughly
execute judgment between a man and his neighbour;
6 If ye oppress not the stranger, the fatherless, and the widow, and shed
not innocent blood in this place, neither walk after other gods to your
hurt:
7 Then will I cause you to dwell in this place, in the land that I gave to
your fathers, for ever and ever.
8 Behold, ye trust in lying words, that cannot profit.
9 Will ye steal, murder, and commit adultery, and swear falsely, and burn
incense unto Baal, and walk after other gods whom ye know not;
10 And come and stand before me in this house, which is called by my name,
and say, We are delivered to do all these abominations?
11 Is this house, which is called by my name, become a den of robbers in
your eyes? Behold, even I have seen it, saith the LORD.
12 But go ye now unto my place which was in Shiloh, where I set my name at
the first, and see what I did to it for the wickedness of my people Israel.
13 And now, because ye have done all these works, saith the LORD, and I
spake unto you, rising up early and speaking, but ye heard not; and I called
you, but ye answered not;
14 Therefore will I do unto this house, which is called by my name, wherein
ye trust, and unto the place which I gave to you and to your fathers, as I
have done to Shiloh.
15 And I will cast you out of my sight, as I have cast out all your
brethren, even the whole seed of Ephraim.
16 Therefore pray not thou for this people, neither lift up cry nor prayer
for them, neither make intercession to me: for I will not hear thee.
17 Seest thou not what they do in the cities of Judah and in the streets of
Jerusalem?
18 The children gather wood, and the fathers kindle the fire, and the women
knead their dough, to make cakes to the queen of heaven, and to pour out
drink offerings unto other gods, that they may provoke me to anger.
19 Do they provoke me to anger? saith the LORD: do they not provoke
themselves to the confusion of their own faces?
20 Therefore thus saith the Lord GOD; Behold, mine anger and my fury shall
be poured out upon this place, upon man, and upon beast, and upon the trees
of the field, and upon the fruit of the ground; and it shall burn, and shall
not be quenched.
21 Thus saith the LORD of hosts, the God of Israel; Put your burnt offerings
unto your sacrifices, and eat flesh.
22 For I spake not unto your fathers, nor commanded them in the day that I
brought them out of the land of Egypt, concerning burnt offerings or
sacrifices:
23 But this thing commanded I them, saying, Obey my voice, and I will be
your God, and ye shall be my people: and walk ye in all the ways that I have
commanded you, that it may be well unto you.
24 But they hearkened not, nor inclined their ear, but walked in the
counsels and in the imagination of their evil heart, and went backward, and
not forward.
25 Since the day that your fathers came forth out of the land of Egypt unto
this day I have even sent unto you all my servants the prophets, daily
rising up early and sending them:
26 Yet they hearkened not unto me, nor inclined their ear, but hardened
their neck: they did worse than their fathers.
27 Therefore thou shalt speak all these words unto them; but they will not
hearken to thee: thou shalt also call unto them; but they will not answer
thee.
28 But thou shalt say unto them, This is a nation that obeyeth not the voice
of the LORD their God, nor receiveth correction: truth is perished, and is
cut off from their mouth.
29 Cut off thine hair, O Jerusalem, and cast it away, and take up a
lamentation on high places; for the LORD hath rejected and forsaken the
generation of his wrath.
30 For the children of Judah have done evil in my sight, saith the LORD:
they have set their abominations in the house which is called by my name, to
pollute it.
31 And they have built the high places of Tophet, which is in the valley of
the son of Hinnom, to burn their sons and their daughters in the fire; which
I commanded them not, neither came it into my heart.
32 Therefore, behold, the days come, saith the LORD, that it shall no more
be called Tophet, nor the valley of the son of Hinnom, but the valley of
slaughter: for they shall bury in Tophet, till there be no place.
33 And the carcases of this people shall be meat for the fowls of the
heaven, and for the beasts of the earth; and none shall fray them away.
34 Then will I cause to cease from the cities of Judah, and from the streets
of Jerusalem, the voice of mirth, and the voice of gladness, the voice of
the bridegroom, and the voice of the bride: for the land shall be desolate.

What did the LORD say for Judah to do? (3)
Upon whom will Godís anger be poured? (20)
How did they respond to the LORDí prophets? (25-26)
What will be meat for the fowls and the beasts? (33)

Chapter 8 To listen and read click the version,
KJV or
NIV, then the sound symbol & wait about 30 sec.
8:1 At that time, saith the LORD, they shall bring out the bones of the
kings of Judah, and the bones of his princes, and the bones of the priests,
and the bones of the prophets, and the bones of the inhabitants of
Jerusalem, out of their graves:
2 And they shall spread them before the sun, and the moon, and all the host
of heaven, whom they have loved, and whom they have served, and after whom
they have walked, and whom they have sought, and whom they have worshipped:
they shall not be gathered, nor be buried; they shall be for dung upon the
face of the earth.
3 And death shall be chosen rather than life by all the residue of them that
remain of this evil family, which remain in all the places whither I have
driven them, saith the LORD of hosts.
4 Moreover thou shalt say unto them, Thus saith the LORD; Shall they fall,
and not arise? shall he turn away, and not return?
5 Why then is this people of Jerusalem slidden back by a perpetual
backsliding? they hold fast deceit, they refuse to return.
6 I hearkened and heard, but they spake not aright: no man repented him of
his wickedness, saying, What have I done? every one turned to his course, as
the horse rusheth into the battle.
7 Yea, the stork in the heaven knoweth her appointed times; and the turtle
and the crane and the swallow observe the time of their coming; but my
people know not the judgment of the LORD.
8 How do ye say, We are wise, and the law of the LORD is with us? Lo,
certainly in vain made he it; the pen of the scribes is in vain.
9 The wise men are ashamed, they are dismayed and taken: lo, they have
rejected the word of the LORD; and what wisdom is in them?
10 Therefore will I give their wives unto others, and their fields to them
that shall inherit them: for every one from the least even unto the greatest
is given to covetousness, from the prophet even unto the priest every one
dealeth falsely.
11 For they have healed the hurt of the daughter of my people slightly,
saying, Peace, peace; when there is no peace.
12 Were they ashamed when they had committed abomination? nay, they were not
at all ashamed, neither could they blush: therefore shall they fall among
them that fall: in the time of their visitation they shall be cast down,
saith the LORD.
13 I will surely consume them, saith the LORD: there shall be no grapes on
the vine, nor figs on the fig tree, and the leaf shall fade; and the things
that I have given them shall pass away from them.
14 Why do we sit still? assemble yourselves, and let us enter into the
defenced cities, and let us be silent there: for the LORD our God hath put
us to silence, and given us water of gall to drink, because we have sinned
against the LORD.
15 We looked for peace, but no good came; and for a time of health, and
behold trouble!
16 The snorting of his horses was heard from Dan: the whole land trembled at
the sound of the neighing of his strong ones; for they are come, and have
devoured the land, and all that is in it; the city, and those that dwell
therein.
17 For, behold, I will send serpents, cockatrices, among you, which will not
be charmed, and they shall bite you, saith the LORD.
18 When I would comfort myself against sorrow, my heart is faint in me.
19 Behold the voice of the cry of the daughter of my people because of them
that dwell in a far country: Is not the LORD in Zion? is not her king in
her? Why have they provoked me to anger with their graven images, and with
strange vanities?
20 The harvest is past, the summer is ended, and we are not saved.
21 For the hurt of the daughter of my people am I hurt; I am black;
astonishment hath taken hold on me.
22 Is there no balm in Gilead; is there no physician there? why then is not
the health of the daughter of my people recovered?

What will they do with the bones of kings, priests and prophets? (1-4)
What word is used to describe their backslidings? (5)
What creatures, in contrast to Godís people, know the time of their coming?
(7)
What is past and ended but we are not saved? (20)